Algeria, half of Kansas City’s first World Cup match, has arrived
Around 10:30 p.m. Sunday night, as the airliner bearing the Algerian national team arrived at Kansas City International Airport, rain began to fall.
Welcome to the Midwest, Desert Foxes.
The northern African nation, which will call the region home during the FIFA World Cup this summer, arrived Sunday evening, and players and staff quickly exited the plane after a 10-and-a-half hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean and jumped on a charter bus bound for a hotel in Lawrence.
A crowd of fans wearing jerseys and sporting Algerian flags basked in the moment. Some craned for views as police shooed them back to designated areas.
The team will stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Lawrence and train at the University of Kansas’ Rock Chalk Park.
Algeria is expected to play a tune-up match against Bolivia on Wednesday, though details about that game have not yet been made public.
Algeria will play in Kansas City’s first match of the tournament on June 16 against defending World Cup champions Argentina. Algeria will then play Jordan in a match on June 22 in California, and then return to Kansas City to play Austria on June 27.
Argentina was welcomed to Kansas City last weekend by happy fans, but the team has since left for friendly matches against Honduras in Texas and against Iceland in Alabama. Kansas City will also host base camps for England and the Netherlands.
